The non-partisan platform "STOP THE BOMB - Coalition against the Iranian extermination program" launches today a signing petition against deals with the Iranian mullahs. The impending completion of the mega-deal between the Austrian Oil Management Company (Oestereichische Mineraloelverwaltung - OMV) and the Iranian terror regime is prompting this petition. The anti-Semitic, apocalyptic Ahmadinejad is leading a regime that outright threatens Israel, and implicitly the West as well, with nuclear annihilation. Whereas the world attempts to avert this menace, a company - of which the state of Austria is its largest shareholder and owns 31.5 percent - undermines these peace efforts.

"The OMV views a country whose leadership exhibits a suicidal sense of mission and a determinedness to obliterate another country as an 'ideal partner' for business. It appears as though Austria intends to downright push itself forward in order to establish itself as a commercial hub, but unfortunately not as an agent of change, for this anti-Semitic and totalitarian Iranian regime", said Elfriede Jelinek. The Nobel Prize Laureate together with numerous prominent individuals coming from almost all walks of life are among the first signers of the campaign "No Deals with the Iranian mullahs". Some of the supporters are: Alfred Dorfer, Robert Schindel, Lotte Tobisch, Dr. Ariel Muzicant, Prof. Arik Brauer, Dr. Ing. Kazem Moussavi, Dr. Elisabeth Pittermann, Dr. Erwin Riess, Hon. Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Neugebauer, Marika Lichter, Dr. Matthias Küntzel, Walter Kohl, Gerhard Haderer, Hermann Gremliza, Karl Pfeifer, Leon De Winter and Beate Klarsfeld.

For a long time Austria refused to acknowledge its complicity in the extermination of European Jews, and Austria is now demonstrating, in light of its WW 2 history, hollow talk of "responsibility" and "never again!". For former city councilwoman a.D. Elisabeth Pitterman, this failure to learn from history shows once again: "The fight against anti-Semitism is regarded at best as synonymous with coping with the past, but never as an effort of the present."

Nowadays, too, the anti-Semitic furor can not be subdued through ignorance and denial. In contrast to those who due to financial interests play down and gloss over the threats of annihilation towards Israel, we, the initiators of this campaign, take the words of a Dictator seriously. Whoever denies the Nazi crime against humanity, or lets them be denied at conferences, just as Ahmadinejad did, is preparing for the next murder of Jews. Wolfgang Neugebauer (Action against anti-Semitism in Austria) said: "As a historian I know that shying away from totalitarian dictatorships can have catastrophic consequences. The Western appeasement policy of 1938 facilitated the successes of Hitler Germany significantly and ultimately led to an even wider war than would have been the case, had there been timely and decisive resistance. The Shoah and other genocides in Europe would not have been possible, had Hitler Germany already been restrained in 1938. From this one should learn."

The signers demand the cessation of a "critical dialog" with the regime in Tehran in favor of comprehensive political and economic sanctions. "The negotiations between the OMV and the Iranian Mullahs as well as credit subsidies by the 'Oesterreichische Kontrollbank AG' for such deals have to be discontinued immediately. The Iranian nuclear program has to be stopped early enough in order to give peace in the Middle East a chance," warned musical star Marika Lichter.

Dr. Ing. Kazem Moussavi (Green Party of Iran) demands that the dialog should be led with the Iranian opposition and no longer with the mullahs. All trade with the regime consolidates its power.

"As a result, the Pandora's box would truly be opened. Something horrendous would thereby emerge", according to Jelinek.

Attachment:

Call: No Deals with the Iranian mullahs!

By the end of this year, Austria's biggest state-controlled oil company, OMV AG, plans to enter into a 22 Billion Euro Agreement with Iran. This agreement will irrevocably turn Austria and Europe into strategic partners and accomplices of the Iranian political regime; a regime that supports international terrorism and violently represses its own population: The Iranian determination to develop nuclear weapons which could directly affect Europe’s security, is posing the greatest threat to world peace.

The systematic persecution of Kurds, religious minorities such as the Bahai, and the executions of homosexuals as well as the ongoing repression of women who don’t submit to the Islamic moral code, are essential elements of this regime, as are the continuous threats of annihilation towards Israel and the renouncement of the Shoah.

The mullahs’ self-delusional fantasies of sacrifice and martyrdom, which are actively put into practice, tie in with the Nazis’ delusions of extermination by new religious and political means, including the willingness to sacrifice their own population for the apocalyptic goals of the regime. As a result, the mullahs will be in possession of nuclear weapons, and this will render political deterrence useless. Those who are interested in doing business or entering into negotiations with the representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran are driven into an appeasement position, which is comparable with the reluctant and hesitant attitude towards the Nazi threat, which not only encouraged but resulted in the largest war of extermination in Europe’s history.

The OMV would grant an economic and political as well as a propagandistic aide to the regime of Ahmadinejad and murderous Jihad-ism. The OMV oil deal helps to further the aspirations of the mullahs towards a worldwide establishment of a global Islamic Ummah.

In order to avoid this, it is necessary to stop the Iranian nuclear program before it is too late. This is the only opportunity for peace both here and in the Middle East.

Iran has to be placed under consistent economic and political pressure in order to avert any threat to Israel. This means to fight the danger of Europe taking part in this programme of extinction – while at the same time being target of nuclear missiles herself. We therefore call - particularly upon the Austrian government – for ceasing "critical negotiations" with the mullahs and demand instead to take the following measures:

- Immediate discontinuation of the negotiations between the OMV and the Iranian mullahs on the basis of unilateral sanctions.

- Cessation of any credit support provided by the Austrian Control Bank for transactions with Iran.

- Imposition of effective and comprehensive UN and EU sanctions in order to isolate the Iranian regime politically and economically.

- Support of those Iranian opposition groups which continue to fight for a secular, liberal and democratic Iran and provide for a genuine alternative to the current regime.